5 Reasons Washington State was Smoked by Stanford

Stanford 44 Washington State 14 – Game Recap

On Saturday night in Pullman Washington State (3-3 1-2 Pac 12) was crushed by 7th ranked Stanford (6-0 4-0 Pac 12) to lose their 3rd game in their last 4. Here are 5 reasons the Cougars were killed in the game.

1. Stanford has Luck – The Cardinal are not lucky, but they have QB Andrew Luck, who torched the WSU defense to the tune of 23/36 for 336 yards with 4 TD and only 1 INT.

Luck threw an INT on his first pass of the game and did not look great in the first half when the Cougars were only down 3, but in the 2nd half he came alive and tossed all 4 of his TD passes, as Stanford outscored WSU 34-7.

2. The return of QB Jeff Tuel was not a boost – Tuel returned to the Cougars’ lineup after missing all but the first game, but maybe it was no the best move to bring him back, as entering the game WSU had the nation’s 7th ranked passing offense.

In the Stanford game Tuel was only 17/30 for 145 yards with 0 TD and 0 INT and he only averaged 4.8 yards per reception.

Jeff Tuel's return wasn't enough to spark the Cougars

3. Rushing the ball is key– For the game the Cougars only rushed for 48 yards while the Cardinal rushed for 139. The WSU RB duo of Carl Winston and Marshall Lobbestael each had a rushing TD in the game, but only combined to rush for 44 yards.

Winston got most of the carries and he only averaged 3.4 yards per carry on 9 attempts. The WSU run defense allowed Stanford RB Stepfan Taylor to rush for 100 yards averaging just under 6 yards per carry.

4. The WSU defense could not play a full game – The Cougars’ defense was solid in the first half holding Stanford to only 10 points and only 165 yards of total offense. However, the 2nd half was a different story, as the Cardinal scored 34 points and racked up 310 total yards of offense.

Stanford scored right away to begin the 2nd half and WSU DT Anthony Laurenzi stated, “We came out and they scored on us right away and we lost momentum.

I felt like we got flat after that touchdown. When our offense couldn’t counter after that, we fell apart.”

5. 33% on 3rd down conversion is not going to cut it – The Cougars only converted 5 of their 15 3rd down conversions in the game and that was costly not being able to sustain drives.

Next Up: WSU has a great chance next week to climb to over .500, as they host an Oregon State squad that only has 1 win on the season and is struggling on both sides of the ball.